Merge Rules Guide

Before you start creating new merge rules, please make sure to add to CleanCRM all the display fields that will be used in Merge Rules. (Setting -> Displayed Fields).

After you have done that you can launch Merge Rules manager:

You can activate or deactivate any Merge Rules. If a rule is not active it will not be visible for CleanCRM users.

When you create a new rule you will first need to select an action

“Select Master Record” - Select Master Record will set the master record based on meeting your selected criteria.

The record that meets all Criteria Conditions will be set as the Master Record.

“Block Duplicate Record” - Block Duplicate Record will block a duplicate record to not be merged, based on meeting your selected criteria.

The record that meets all Criteria Conditions will be removed from the Duplicate Set and will not be merged. It is the equivalent of using “Remove” link on the left of the record in the gridview.

“Block Duplicate Set” - Block Duplicate Set will block the entire duplicate set from being processed and the records will not be merged. If any record meets all the Criteria Conditions, the whole duplicate set will be removed and will not be merged. This is the equivalent of using the “Remove” link in the gridview on all records in Duplicate Set (note that you cannot remove Master, so if it’s done manually, you will have 1 record in that Duplicate Set).

“Set Field Value” - Set Field Value will set the desired field value based on meeting your selected criteria.

If all the Criteria Conditions are met, the specified value will be set to “Final” Master Record.

Note: It will be set to Final field value directly and will not affect other conflicting values checkboxes.

Sample: We need to set the value of “Required evaluation” to “Yes” if we don’t have data for “Phone”, “Fax”, and “Website”.

The Merge Rule can be setup with “Set Field Value”, Action: Set Value to “Required evaluation” = “Yes”, Conditions: “Phone”, “Fax”, and “Website” = “Column Is Empty”.

In this case, CleanCRM will put “Yes” to Final value of field “Required evaluation”, but only if whole columns for all 3 fields “Phone”, “Fax”, “Website” is empty for this Duplicate Set.

“Add the desired Set Value actions:”

Note: this will be applied to each Duplicate Set individually.

“Set Value” - Set a value to a specific field. You have to fill in the value to set.

“Set Value To Largest” - If a field value is a number, it will be set to the largest number. If the value is text, the largest value will be defined by ASCII ordering (Z is larger than A). All values that contain a mix of numbers and letter will be treated as text.

“Set Value To Most Frequent” - The most frequent value will be selected.

“Set Value To Shortest” - This is the opposite to “Set Value To Longest”. The shortest value will be used. Sample: “555-555-5555” vs. “555-555-5555 ext 555”, “555-555-5555” will be used.

“Set Value To Smallest” - This is the opposite of “Set Value To Largest”. If a field value is a number, it will be set to the smallest number. If the value is text, the smallest values will be defined by ASCII ordering (A is smaller than Z). All values that contain a mix of numbers and letter will be treated as text.

The last part is selecting the criteria for this rule

First, you need to define if this will be “And” or “Or” logic.

Select “All” if you need “And” logic, select “Any” for “Or” logic.

You can add multiple conditions and Sub-Conditions. For each Sub-Condition you have to define the logic as well (All/Any).

For each Condition, you will need to define the field and the criteria.

The first set of fields (before the break) is a pre-defined set of multiple fields.

“Address” - Any Address that is presented in CleanCRM displayed fields. This field can be set to “Is Most Complete” or “Is Least Complete”.

“Billing Address” - Only the Billing Address fields that are presented in CleanCRM displayed fields will be processed. This field can be set to “Is Most Complete” or “Is Least Complete”.

“Shipping Address” - Only the Shipping Address fields that are presented in CleanCRM displayed fields will be processed. This field can be set to “Is Most Complete” or “Is Least Complete”.

“Create Date” - The record create Date. This field can be set to “Is Newest” or “Is Oldest”.

“Duplicate Type” - This will evaluate whole Duplicate Sets (groups of records in CleanCRM with common number, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4) and the defined duplicate type. This can be set to “Is Conflicting Duplicate” - duplicates that conflicts each other, marked with red background color in CleanCRM, “Is Exact Duplicate” or “Is Non Duplicate”.

“Multiple Fields” - This allows you to evaluate multiple fields at once. It can be very useful if your Master Record preference is not based on Date or Address. You will select the criteria for the fields, and then select multiple fields in any order (Use Ctrl+Mouse Click to select/deselect multiple items).

“Are All Empty” - For fields with no data.

“All Contain Data” - For fields with data.

“Least Filled In” - For fields with less data.

“Most Filled In” - For fields with the most populated data. Most useful for helping select the Master Record.

“All other fields” - You can select a field and its criteria. Criteria can be based on the Duplicate set (“Column…”, “Largest Number”, ”Smallest Number”), or an individual value (“Value..”).